Chicago Stadium, Dawn Sweeney, Bruins discussed on The Ray & Dregs Hockey Podcast
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Is the same. The garden, old Chicago stadium, buffalo, the odd, even when I was a Vancouver and I came into Boston. I was like, oh my God, this is going to be a battle. So I felt that as a visitor and he certainly know it as the home team that you do have some kind of advantage to playing in that building. How different did it have to did your brain have to click over as the games evolve. Now you're helping shape, not just the current bruins, but the future bruins and you and dawn Sweeney and your staff and that, how do you look at the game now and what you need to be successful compared to what you did even when you guys were in the cop. Well, you know, when you're a player, you really just focus on yourself. You have to be very selfish, right? In my position now, you know, you certainly want to look at your club, your depth of your club, what do you have in your system, what you need, not just for your current club, but what you need moving forward. And you look at kind of charting a path to try and feel some of those voids you see coming up, but for me, it's really, I try to just make it very simple for the players. They have to compete. You have to go out and compete. You may not play well every night, but you can compete well every night. That's one thing for me is, you know, I want players that are going to compete for each other. Yeah, I'm Neil, joining us on The Rain drags podcast bridge era's again just momentarily here. Three time 50 goal scorer with a Boston ruins Austin Matthews scores 60 last year. So is that a strong indicator? I mean, the game is completely different. But is that a strong indicator that we are going to, again, see more 50 goal scorers on an annual basis? Well, I think it is. I mean, you see a lot of skill out there across the league. Goaltending certainly that position has changed dramatically, the equipment has changed a lot. But the skill of the players, I think you see more skill throughout the NHL now, even with 32 teams. So I do see goal scoring going up a little bit. I mean, you know, obviously, you know, coaches, they can teach defense more easily than they can often. And so that's what you're going to see from a lot of coaches. But we had a 7 5 game in Ottawa and we're like, oh, we've got to tighten up and get tight enough, but I'm fearless about the plan. We had two of those a week. Back in the day. Hey, you mentioned earlier Drake's brought up Jim Montgomery and we decided to move on from a really good coach in Bruce Cassidy. You open up a, you know, you open up a search. And how does that exactly play itself out? I mean, there's obviously lots of qualified people. There's also lots of people that would like to talk to you. And the Don Sweeney, like, how does that play out? Do you make an initial list or you obviously have to have some list to start somewhere? I think it's something that you really paid a close attention to, you know, obviously who's coaching the lead, what coaches maybe just recently got let go. And then who are some up and coming coaches, whether they're an assistant coach in the league or their head coach somewhere else. I think you have a pretty good idea of who's out there to begin with even before you make a coaching change. And that wasn't an easy decision for Don at all to make Butch as you mentioned is a really good coach, but unfortunately I think time is not on coaches side as far as longevity in one city for length of time. I mean, we were blessed we had clothed for ten years and Butch for 6, which is kind of unusual. But yeah, you have a pretty good idea of who's out there who's maybe deserves an opportunity who may be deserves another opportunity. Meaning like their second or third or who deserves their first. So it was an interesting process to go through. We met a number of really good candidates. That's for sure. I read an article this past week or so about Luke robitaille, who is one of my favorites and great fabulous teammate who's, you know, bridging the business side and the hockey side and he mentioned that he's, you know, he's talked to you a little bit about it. How do you balance the business side of an original 6 franchise in Boston and the crowded competitive market there? Celtics Red Sox patriots. And the hockey side, like, is one more fun than the other, or is it? Is there anything that's, I don't know, I don't know if it's fun or it's just enjoyable work or what is it? Like how do you make that work? Well, this challenge is a question. You know, when I first got back with the team, I became very close with our CFO. I think, you know, he was very helpful in kind of helping me along and understanding the business side a little bit, but obviously what happens on the ice drives everything, right? So if your team's successful, then business is going to be good. It's when you have a little downturn where that's when things become a lot more challenging. We have to understand who our fan base is, what their expectations are, which we should know that. Obviously, highly focused on what happens on the ice, but what happens after the ace on the business side is extremely important to me. And I like being involved in it. I really do. During the pandemic, that was very challenging. There was things I had to do that I never dreamt in my wildest years that I would be doing as a president of a hockey club and it was challenging for everybody, but fortunately we were able to get through that. Are you at all calmer yet? Like in the press box, generally. No, no, I mean in general, you don't get everyone for a while. Wires touched. You know, you run a little. We all do, I think. Yeah, the emotions get cranked up, but that's why I really try to just get away in August and recharge the batteries and enjoy my family and friends, not think too much of what hockey. Isn't it awesome though you feel recharged at the Edna August and then camp rolls around and everybody's like, you see guys like three weeks into the season, nobody slapped everybody's dressing. Yeah, it's a beautiful sport. All right, Kim, we'll let you go with this, but you know, you've your entire career as a player and now is an executive in hockey. You've always kept a handle on been a strong influence in the community. So we'd be remiss on the podcast. If we didn't ask you about cam's comics, come home. And that's a charity fundraiser, which you and Dennis Leary founded. It's an event, the TD garden on November 12th, and the essence of it is to raise money for cancer patients and their families. So talk a little bit about that before you leave. Yeah, I became friendly with Dennis years, years and years and years ago, and I'd asked him, I said, listen, Dennis, would you have any interest in doing a comedy benefit for my foundation? I thought it would just be him on stage for an hour and we'd raise a few bucks and he was like, well, let me think about it. And he came back to me and he goes,